All sectors except crude oil and steel registered positive growth in December 2021
Production from India’s eight core regions grew 3.8% in December 2021, marginally faster than the 3.4% growth recorded in November, but still far from a healthy 8.4% year-on-year growth in October.
Although the year-on-year decline in production occurred in just two sectors – crude oil (-1.8%) and steel (-1%) – economists said the signals from the data were mixed. Cement production rose by 3.6 percent in November to nearly 13 percent, while natural gas production rose 19.5%.
Aditi Nair, Chief Economist, ICRA, said, “Since December, many high-frequency indicators have outperformed the growth recorded in October, so we expect industrial production to register a growth of less than 2%, for the fourth consecutive month. less than the growth of core sectors.” ,
CARE Ratings also expects the growth of core sectors to remain sluggish going forward. “The rapid increase in COVID-19 cases driven by the new Omicron variant and the imposition of new restrictions could impact core sector growth in the coming months,” the agency said in a note.
Separately, the Office of the Economic Adviser in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade revised the growth rate of core sectors to 5.4% in September 2021 from 4.4% previously estimated.
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